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Religion > A Time to Be Born & a Time to Die
 

A Time to Be Born & a Time to Die

Whatever you believe, I think you can take something away from this wonderful passage from Ecclesiastes if nothing more than appreciation for the skill of its writer and its wonderful poetic rhythm.

There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:


    a time to be born and a time to die,  
a time to plant and a time to uproot,


    a time to kill and a time to heal,
    a time to tear down and a time to build,


     a time to weep and a time to laugh,
    a time to mourn and a time to dance,

     a time to scatter stones and a time to    gather them,
    a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,

    a time to search and a time to give up,
    a time to keep and a time to throw away,


   a time to tear and a time to mend,
   a time to be silent and a time to speak,


    a time to love and a time to hate,
    a time for war and a time for peace.


 What do workers gain from their toil?

 I have seen the burden God has laid on the  human race.

 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.

I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live.

That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God.

I
know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added
to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that people will fear
him.


 Whatever is has already been,
  and what will be has been before;
  and God will call the past to account.


And I saw something else under the sun:

In the place of judgment—wickedness was there,  in the place of justice—wickedness was there.

I said to myself,


“God will bring into judgment
    both the righteous and the wicked,
for there will be a time for every activity,
    a time to judge every deed.”


 I also said to myself, “As for humans, God tests them so that they may see that they are like the animals.

Surely the fate of human beings is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath humans have no advantage over animals. Everything is meaningless.

 All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return.

Who knows if the human spirit rises upward and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth?”

Though no one knows for sure, Ecclesiastes was probably written by Solomon. Solomon was given the gift of wisdom but not of prophecy. Therefore, he cannot foresee that some of these questions will be answered by the writers of the New Testament, who were either apostles or close friends of Jesus.

This is a fatalistic view of man's existence, and some of it, I believe, is true. For instance, much of our life is controlled by fate, including the time we are born and, in my opinion, the time when we die.

However, the last questions posed here concerning what happens to the spirit are answered in the New Testament, where we learn we do have a choice concerning our spirit and our bodies.

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ecclesiastes+3&version=NIV




 

posted on May 9, 2012 8:48 AM ()

Comments:

Ironically, the ad I see beneath your post says "Real Science, Real Choice"!! Weird.
comment by solitaire on May 10, 2012 5:17 AM ()
That is ironic, but we all do have a choice.
reply by redimpala on May 10, 2012 8:25 AM ()
I love the King James version because it is so poetic.






comment by elderjane on May 10, 2012 4:52 AM ()
There's a reason the Bible is called the greatest book ever written. If ever one doubted that the finger of God wrote it, he need only read some of the beautiful passages such as this one. Solomon, if indeed he wrote Ecclesiastes, was an educated man; but many of the books were written by men who had little education. Yet, their prose flows like sophisticated verse with such beauty that it is beyond the scope of even the great writers of history, including Shakespeare, who is quoted but not so often quoted as the Bible.
reply by redimpala on May 10, 2012 8:31 AM ()
It really is lovely.
comment by troutbend on May 9, 2012 8:29 PM ()
One of my very favorite passages in the Bible.
reply by redimpala on May 9, 2012 11:00 PM ()

'I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy'
comment by greatmartin on May 9, 2012 9:29 AM ()
Words of wisdom from the wisest of all kings.
reply by redimpala on May 9, 2012 9:51 AM ()

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